Has anyone used it? I've used C# and VB.NET extensively, but haven't tried anything with Mono on a linux platform yet.

What are your impressions of it?

I won't use it. Although I believe it is a valiant effort, read what one of the Gnome developers as to say about it:
http://blogs.gnome.org/view/seth/2004/05/19/0

And another thought: http://gnomedesktop.org/node/2012

M$ cannot be trusted at all, IMHO. They are greedy bastards, and I don't think we should base anything on products they have written. They will eventually find the legal means to dismantle it.

Just say "No" to Mono. My two cents...

Those links seem a tad...biased. Gnome sucks. Even Torvalds doesn't support it. So it's a bit of the tea kettle calling the pot black. Or either that, Gnome engineer that just don't want to have the headache of implementing M$ version of Java.

But...back on point. So you won't use it, and haven't used it...and would rather just shut it out based upon uninformed bias...or you've used it and have an educated point of view, which I'd rather hear of, then from a link.

I'd rather due without the rhetoric and would like to know if anyone really has used it, and how it compares.

Gnome doesn't suck at all - it's a matter of personal preference. The threat is real because Mono is reverse engineered .NET. The point is, Mono is dangerous to the GNU community if we base apps on it. Apparently you missed that rather important point.

True enough...Gnome doesn't really suck, but you can tell amongst the community KDE is definitely preferred. Personally, I don't mind either. I just want stuff to work.

As for Mono threatening the GNU community...I don't really see how. And it's not really reverse engineering...it's building to a specification defined for CLR by, yes Microsoft, but there are other players in the community that contribute. It is an open standard. Where Microsoft only can have a say is in it's own patents that are protected, and/or it's own utilities...etc.

The .net Framework itself is not open source, however the CLR and many of the fundamental components is. That is how Mono has been legally been able to do it's thing.

Let's face it...Java has a very strong platform on Linux and with the GNU and open source community. Microsoft can't threaten that, but it can decide to keep most of it's own development on the windows platform.

You will find, however in the coming years Microsoft won't be able to ignore the lack of true portability in it's own framework, and if it wants to compete, it will probably end up having to understand portability and platform indepedence...

Microsoft is about money. But they really can't touch Mono or threaten the GNU (remember, GNU isn't simply just "free" either, it has a strong commercial model), or any of the open source implementations of it's .net framework technology.

Good points - I understand the CLR and Mono situation a little better because of your explanation. I tend to be paranoid about M$ because they are very devious and will use any tactic to get their way.

I used to be a long time Gnome user (since 1.4), mainly because I love the way Gnome looks, and I am probably one of the few people who actually like Nautilus. I have not done any Gnome development, but have done quite a bit of testing for Gnome developers, mainly against the HIG.

I have however, recently switched to KDE. The single reason I switched is stability. Gnome is quite buggy compared to KDE, and I have had my Gnome desktop lock solid on a regular basis, no matter what distro I happen to be running. KDE just works. Additionally, I am slowly finding KDE to be far better with respect to integration and usability. Now if I could just make the windecs/widgets/icons not look like cartoons...

I'm VS.NET developer very interested in working with Mono. Have just set up a server using Suse 10 and am looking for the best way to be sure I have the lastest stable release.

Does Novell provide online updates or should I use Red Carpet?

Thanks,
Scott